Hi Fran,Without a picture it is hard to tell by I would guess that your goldfish has some tumors. Whether they are benign or not is hard to say without of course a biopsy. If your curious, you could take your fish to an aquatic vet but he has lived a long life already. It is also hard to say what the color loss is from. Color loss can be from stress, sickness, old age, diet or genetics. If the tumors don't seem to bother him, then I would just let him live out is life as comfortably as possible.

If these things are much like warts, it could simply be a slight case of lymphocystis, also called carp pox. This is a viral infection of sorts, but it doesn't harm the fish in any way, and you can't really treat it either.

But like Mindemae said, it would be easier to determine with a pic, please upload a photo if you can (: